Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost (Series C)
Rev. Christopher L. Raffa
Pilgrim Lutheran Church
West Bend, Wisconsin
Amos 6:1-7 • 1st Timothy 6:6-19 • Luke 16:19-31
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is so striking and solemn to the hearer that it has been said, “They must be fast asleep who are not startled by it.” So it is that the words of our Lord today are not sweet lullaby’s sending us to peaceful rest, but words that must be heeded with an awakened and earnest repentance thereby resulting in justifying faith. The parable is in several respects unique. Of all Jesus’ sayings, this one, most undoubtedly, carries the hearer into regions beyond earthly experience. It gives the hearer a glimpse into the hidden economy of God. Jesus, the one who has seen and suffered the pains of hell, who begged like the rich man saying, “I thirst,” for our sakes, and by His glorious resurrection raised us to the joys of heavenly bliss, takes us today where the eyes of man have never been. At this juncture, however, a caution is in order. As the lamb who lays safely in Abraham’s bosom we must not strain our eyes beyond the Shepherd’s view or stretch these celestial sentences beyond their meaning or purpose.
At first read we might well think that the parable of the rich man and Lazarus is all about equalization and vindication. All things are ironed out in the end. The poor become rich, and the rich become poor. But this is really not the case. Those who suffer greater afflictions in this life are not guaranteed a place in Abraham’s bosom. Nor is it that those whose bank accounts are bigger will end up in the fires of hell. This parable is not about assessing the deeds or lifestyle of a particular individual so as to predict their eternal destiny. Rather, it is about saving faith whose object is Jesus Christ alone and that which condemns a man, faith in oneself.
Christ directed this parable at the Pharisees who continued to deride Him for teaching that it is God alone who justifies man, whereas they were attempting to justify themselves before God on the basis of their works. What the Pharisees were saying is personified in the attitude of the rich man, that is, a self-justifying spirit. The piety therefore of the rich man was disposed as to attract the observation and win the applause of men. In the world’s eyes the rich man, aside from his being cast into hell, is probably viewed as one who is simply talented, smart, and careful how his money is spent. Greed is dressed up to look like a virtue when all along it is a terrible vice. Perhaps murder is still murder in some people’s eyes, but ironically, with enlightenment comes a dimmer view of truth and reality. For example, is adultery viewed as sin these days? No, you’re just a desperate housewife. Is abortion a sin these days? No, you’re just a poster child for women’s rights and freedom in a male dominated society. Is homosexuality a sin? No, embrace your sexual orientation, after all God made you that way. Neither judge nor common citizen can call a thing what it is any more. And when it comes to greed, it is simply a man who prudently provides for himself and is resourceful, who makes it as one of Donald Trump’s new apprentices as he evades those fateful words, “You’re fired.”
But maybe we have judged to quickly this rich man. After all, in Jesus’ description of him, no particulars are given as to how he amassed his wealth. Perhaps he gained it all through wise money management. All we are told is that he was a man who was wealthy, fond of Hollywood’s bright lights and shows, and enjoyed five star dinning. There is, however, one problem. At the entrance of his mansion lies a beggar named Lazarus—a miserable creature, full of bodily sores, and who cares not about the star rating of their food service, just that he receive the micro-waved leftovers. Plain to our eyes is that no effort is made by the rich man to relieve this beggar’s wretched state. Nothing is done to soothe his suffering. His only guardians and help come from the four legged beast know as man’s best friend.
As we know from our parable, this is not the end for Lazarus or the rich man. But crucial to seeing the point of this parable, for why the rich man found himself in hell and Lazarus was carried by angels to Abraham’s side, is to remember the object of their faith. Indeed, the poor man doesn’t ride on angels’ wings to heaven because he is poor nor is the rich man sent to hell because he wears fine linen. Both are sinners. Both are in desperate need of God’s unconditional grace. The problem is that the faith of their hearts was not the same.
The riches of this life, the American Dream, the pursuit of happiness, these were the gods of the rich man’s heart. As long as he was happy, healthy and wealthy, he had no care in the world, including that of his poor wretched neighbor. His faith was centered in himself and what he could acquire in this life to make himself happy and comfortable. Tragically he failed to inquire about what the first commandment really means: we are to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. It is an eternal error, worthy of damnation to trust in that which cannot save, to reject Moses and the Prophets. What the rich man had was a carnal security, an imaginary security based upon earthly possessions. He had no use for God and His grace and thus no compassion toward his suffering neighbor. All that mattered to him was himself and the things he possessed. The words of the prophet Amos call out after us, calling us to repentance, lest we end up like the rich man in exile. “Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away” (Amos 6:4-7)
We must also realize that simply to have an excess of wealth is not a sin. But the danger, which the rich man failed to heed, was that riches can very easily become your god, a god which may for a while give you pleasure but in the end will sink you into the torments of hell. Do not forget the sobering words of Abraham, “Child remember that you in your life time received good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish” (Luke 16:25). Paul’s words to Timothy echo this warning when he says, “Those desiring to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1st Timothy 6:9-10).
Then there is Lazarus, a poor and detestable man who longed for the bread of life, whose life was immersed in suffering and pain, whose own flesh and blood would not receive him. The kingdom of men had rejected him. But in the end, like those tax collectors and sinners, Christ received him into His heavenly care. The God of Abraham, who had created Lazarus out of nothing, now in His Son Jesus Christ, redeemed and resurrected this poor wretched sinner unto eternal life, comfort, and joy. This is how the grace of God operates. Lazarus did not receive grace because he was a poor beggar whom God had pity on. Nor did God require of Lazarus a certain amount of moral reform and personal commitment. God’s grace is not a matter of you doing your part, and God doing his. But rather, as Luther said, “the love of God does not find but creates that which is pleasing to it.”[1] The kingdom of heaven received Lazarus because of the man Christ Jesus who fully accomplishes all of man’s salvation and gives of it freely. Lazarus’ faith was not about Lazarus, but about the man Christ Jesus who is the only mediator between God and man. He knew that by the Law and the Prophets that this man suffered, died, and rose again so as to set sinners like him free.
In His mercy, and through the Law and the prophets, God lowered Lazarus so as to seek those things which give life and remain forever. He was not too proud to kneel and receive the Bread of Life which had come down for him and for all who would receive as beggars, as sinners who through such eating and drinking become saints sheltered in the bosom of Abraham. He knew that Mary’s song of adoration to the Son of God made flesh was also His. “He has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty…For he has remember his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our Fathers, to Abraham and his children forever”
Between the riches of self and the riches of God lies a chasm that no man can cross. Between the word of man and the Word of God stands the difference between the gift of heaven and the curse of hell. The rich man, given totally up to his own desires and self-happiness refused to hear and receive the one thing that could have saved him: the living Word of God spoken in and through those whom God has sent to represent and give His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. This is why pastors exist, to preach the Law, the Prophets, and the God-man who is at the center of it all, who fulfills the promise that was made in the very beginning: that Christ, the seed of the woman, would crush the powers of sin, Satan and death, and make all things new.
If you are to hear this promise and receive it you must hear it where God has ordained this hearing to take place. And where is that, you ask? It is in the church. It is in the public ministry of the Word, through the mouth of the parish pastor, who preaches to you the one true Gospel and administers faithfully to you the Sacraments. Whoever hears them, hears God. Yet, whoever will not hear them. Whoever denies that the Word of God is true, then even if a person should rise from the dead before their very eyes will not be convinced of the truth that sets men free. Article five (The Ministry) of the Augsburg Confession declares as much when it confesses, “So that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. Through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given. He works faith, where and when it pleases God, in those who hear the good news that God justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake. This happens not through our own merits, but for Christ sake.”[2]
May it be unto us, that God in His great wisdom and mercy would make us hearers of His Word, holy beggars whose only disposition is to trust and receive that which has been promised to us, namely, Christ and His gifts which guarantee our place in Abraham’s bosom. That we would commit our bodies and souls not to the imaginary securities of the flesh and of this ever decaying life, but to Jesus Christ, the One who makes all things new, the One whose love endures forever, the One who is and ever shall be our salvation.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son+ and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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[1] Martin Luther quoted by James Nestingen in The Captivation of The Will: Luther vs. Erasmus on Freedom and Bondage, by Gerhard Forde. (Lutheran Quarterly Books: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005) pg.3.
[2] Concordia Lutheran Confessions: A Readers Edition of the Book of Concord (2nd Edition). Concordia Publishing House, Saint Louis, 2005. Page 59